Post Adversity
by just delete this account
Summary: sequel to 24 hours, or not. Sean/Alex and hints of Charles/Erik


Oh look! An actual one shot! Hope it makes up for the supremely short drabbles I put up

Fluffedy fluffedy fluff fluff fluff!...with a (handful of) dash(es) of angst!

Guh, what is it with me and kitchens and staying up at ungodly hours?

:p Oh well, whatever, enjoy you guys!

* * *

><p>Alex stared at the glass of water in front of him, willing his mind to be as blank and clear as it was. It almost worked for a few seconds but then Alex couldn't help but be distracted by the faint ticking of the grandfather clock in the hall echoing in the silence and he sighed, slumping forward on the kitchen table and resting his chin on folded arms.<p>

It's been almost 2 weeks since they all nearly got obliterated by missiles as a reward for saving the world from plunging into world war III and to sum up things post missile crisis, all of them got screwed up by the event to some degree and are so far showing no signs of returning back to normal.

Sean got off the easiest out of all of them. Aside from a dislocated shoulder, bruised ribs, a sprained wrist and the "the world hates us and they almost wiped us from existence" brooding that they were all suffering through in varying degrees, he was fine. Hank was pretty much the same except he had no injuries and he was brooding five times as much, seems that now that he didn't have any wars or megalomaniac mutants to worry about _and _with Raven's departure, the issue of his transformation was taking over his life. Still though, he was better than Charles. Charles was the worst out of all of them and he tried to hide it as hard as he could but, ironically enough, all of them could see straight through him. Erik leaving, losing his legs and failing in his first attempt at establishing peaceful human/mutant co-existence really hit him hard and Alex would be lying if he said he wasn't scared for the man.

As for Alex himself? Well, his cross was nightmares.

Almost every night, he'd relive what happened on the beach. He'd see Sean twisting in pain on the sand a good ten feet away from him after they crash landed on the shore and then it'd flash forward to them all standing directly under a rain of missiles. He'd wake up shaken to the core at how close he'd been to dying, how _Sean_ had been even _closer_ to dying. Just one slight adjustment, one tiny little change and Sean could've landed at the worst angle and broken his ribs or even worse, his neck. It really didn't help that everyday he saw Sean in three different braces, pretending it doesn't hurt whenever he accidentally made any sudden moves or occasionally ran into furniture.

Alex sighed again and started drumming his fingers on the kitchen table. He wondered if it should bother him that he was more scared of the fact that Sean almost died than he himself did.

The rhythmic sound of his fingers tapping against the wood allowed Alex to zone out for a little bit and that's why he didn't hear the footsteps and nearly knocked his glass of water over when a voice called out to him.

"Dude, it's like 5 AM in the morning, why are you up?"

Alex whipped around to look and couldn't help the things, both positive and negative that leapt up somewhere in his chest and started having a war at who should take over Alex's being when he saw Sean standing there, shoulder, rib and wrist brace all clamped firmly in place. Alex resisted the small urge to look away as the sight triggered images from his nightmares and he shrugged, faking nonchalance.

"Why are you up?" Alex countered.

Sean shrugged his good shoulder. "My shoulder was bothering me for a bit, it stopped hurting a while back but now I couldn't go back to sleep so I figured I'd go down for a midnight snack."

Alex frowned. "Are you ok?"

And the distress must've showed through his expression because then Sean frowned back and said. "I'm fine. What's wrong?" and there it was again, that look that made Alex feel like Sean dissecting him with his eyes, looking for all the individual pieces so he could figure out the puzzle. Alex rubbed at his eyes tiredly and sighed.

"Nothing, I'm just…worried I guess."

Sean walked over and took a seat across from him. "About?"

Alex thought carefully of what he should say for a second. "Everything."

Sean seemed to understand completely and he nodded, eyes straying down to the table for a second.

"Oh."

"What do you think is gonna happen to all of us now that the world knows we exist?"

Sean shrugged hesitantly in response but Alex knew what he was thinking, what they all were thinking. Erik was probably right. The humans would probably attempt to start a second holocaust, finding all the mutants and snuffing them all out. They don't know how long it'll take to happen and they don't want to believe it will, after all, why would they have stuck with Charles if they didn't believe as he did even a little bit? Besides, Charles assured them that in the even that it _does _happen, they`ll be safe here in the mansion.

…but, how long would they be?

Erik knew where they were and if he had the same goals as Shaw, then he probably thought of them as enemies now. If he felt like it, he could either attack them or sell them out to the humans to not only get rid of them but to get his point across and perhaps get them to hate humans as well and join him.

"Who do you think will get to us first? The government or Erik?"

Sean seemed to think deeply for a second, then, without looking at Alex, he said "I don't think Erik would be bothering us for a while, it's too soon and the professor's…part dead…" Sean trailed off but Alex understood. He thought back to the look on Erik's face when he realized the last bullet he deflected hit Charles, the look on his face as he cradled Charles in his lap screaming at them to get away. No. Erik probably wouldn't do anything, not until he could bury all the guilt and…everything else.

Almost involuntarily, Alex's brain linked the tragedy that struck their former mentors to his nightmares and he found himself almost chewing his lip in anxiety as he thought about any potential tragedies that could befall them.

"Jesus…everything is so, so screwed up. You know, now that this whole thing is over, maybe you should finally go back home… It might be safer for you there."

Sean looked incredulous initially, then it faded to something Alex couldn't decipher when he took a good look at Alex's face. Sean scoffed softly.

"Alex, "this whole thing" is just beginning. Besides," he took a meaningful pause, staring Alex straight in the eye as he did so.

"I think I'm needed more here."

They stared at each other in silence until Sean smiled in assurance, as if he knew everything that's been going on inside Alex's head. He leaned across the table and stole a kiss. "And you'll be miserable without me."

Alex rolled his eyes but said nothing.

"Alex, what's wrong, seriously?"

Alex sighed. "What _isn't_?"

Sean shrugged one shoulder. "K, well, the professor is in horrible shape, in many different ways, Hank is having issues, I'm almost handicapped…you?"

Alex stared at Sean in silence, Sean stared back, raising his eyebrows as if prompting Alex to speak.

Alex exhaled through his nose. "…I'm having issues too, I guess."

Sean didn't say anything for a long moment but the look on his face implied that that's because he didn't have to. The look in his eyes was all, too knowing when he spoke.

"Are you scared?"

Alex looked down at the glass in front of him, remaining silent for the longest time.

Sean tilted his head to the side curiously when Alex smiled and chuckled softly.

"It's weird you know? I've never been afraid of anything…until I met you."

Sean looked like he didn't know what to make of that for a second, before his ability to read between the lines allowed him to piece everything together and he smiled, figuring it was probably the closest thing he'd ever get from Alex, as far as verbal declarations of affection went.

He was right handed so he didn't really think about it when he reached out to grab Alex's left with his own. Alex stared down at their hands with a weird look on his face and that's when Sean realized that he reached out with the wrist that was wrapped in a brace.

Silently, Alex gently grabbed hold of it and brought it to his face, then in a rare display of very un-Alex-like vulnerability and tenderness, he kissed Sean's fingers and pressed the side of his hand against his eyes, as if he was hiding.

"For the sake of my nerves and mental well-being…can you try never to get hurt again?" Alex asked hesitantly, as if he wasn't sure he should be saying the words.

Sean smiled, feeling oddly warm and happy at Alex's behavior.

"Wow, we've only been dating for a few weeks and you're already freaking out over minor injuries…you must really be inlove with me."

He meant to say it in a joking manner but it came out more soft and awed than anything.

Alex didn't answer and he was quiet for so long that Sean thought he wasn't going to but then he lowered Sean's hand from his face and, looking off to the side he said

"You're kind of…all I have…so," Alex looked back at him for a second, then seeing the look of surprise on his face, he coughed and looked away again.

Sean felt sad and happy and honored and all other sorts of bittersweet feelings as he realized the truth in that statement. Alex had no family to come back to and barely had one here, not yet anyway and with Hank and Charles being in the state that they're in, any bonding with anyone was assured to happen not any time soon. It was almost unbelievable, Sean's never been in a position like it before and he could be assuming too much but…apparently, the absolute most important person to Alex right now, was him.

It was a big thing to confess and it provoked things in him that made him obligated to utter a response that was anything less than what he'd been given.

"I love you too."

Alex turned back to him, wide-eyed and Sean smiled at him sheepishly, fidgeting slightly.

"...Anyway, you've got nothing to worry about. If we made it past Shaw and we made it past two countries ready to destroy each other, I'm pretty sure we'll make it through anything and everything else that could happen to us." Sean said reaching for Alex's wrist with his good hand and squeezing it reassuringly.

"And," he continued, looking Alex straight in the eye

"I'm not going anywhere."

Alex just stared back, blue eyes shining with a thousand unspoken words then he stood up, leaned over, pecked Sean's forehead and leaned down to kiss him deeply on the mouth.

Somehow they ended up abandoning the kitchen and going up to Sean's room, where Alex wound up sitting at the foot of the bed with Sean on his lap, fingers running in soothing, endless patterns through his hair and mouth glued to his. His own hands were lost under the fabric of Sean's shirt, lazily tracing his spine, feeling the dips on his lower back and the sharp curves of his shoulder blades over and over.

When Sean pulled away for air, Alex kissed his way down the side of his neck. Sean chuckled throatily.

"Are we picking up where we left off before we went to stop the US and Russia from blowing each other up?"

Alex pulled back to go back to Sean's mouth, placing a kiss on his chin on his way up.

He kissed him for a few seconds before pulling away with a small smile.

"No. Why? Did you want to this time?"

"If I said yes?"

"Then too bad, maybe when you're not injured anymore."

Sean laughed. "Wow, what a gentleman, you're not even dealing with a girl. I never knew you could be so sweet Alex."

Alex smacked him on the thigh and grunted. "Shut the fuck up."

Sean kissed him on the cheek. "I won't tell anyone, don't worry."

There was a slight pause in which they just stared at each other then Sean smiled. "Feeling better?"

Alex sighed heavily and offered Sean a split second half smile. "Yeah."

"Good." Sean said before leaning in for another kiss.

"I trust you not to take it the wrong way when I say," Sean began, gesturing to his pillows with his head "sleep with me tonight?" Alex scoffed but he smiled. "Yeah, whatever."

They got under the covers then, shifting around for a few moments until they were comfortable. Alex ended up on his side with his back to Sean and Sean practically plastered to him. When they turned out the lights Sean threw an arm over his waist and though it was skinny as hell and wrapped in braces around the shoulder and the wrist, Alex felt incredibly secure and safe under it.

"Night Alex" Sean muttered against the back of his neck

"Night." Alex murmured back.

"…love you."

Alex didn't say anything and though Sean couldn't see his smile, he thought that his hand, gentle and warm above his injured wrist and the loud thumping off his heart, which was so strong, he was sure Sean could feel it against his chest, let Sean know his answer.

Alex fell asleep that night, for the first time in days without nightmares and a considerably less bleak outlook on the future.

* * *

><p>reviews are love!<p>

oh aand I put up a havshee poll in my profile, please vote, it'd really help me out. Thank uuu ^^


End file.
